This invention relates to tools to assist in the application of siding to a wall or similar structure. The tools facilitate the fast and accurate placement of siding on a wall.
Heretofore, no really accurate and fast tool for siding application has been developed. Siders still employ about the same methods and tools that have been used for the past two hundred years. They measure each piece of siding for the desired overlap with a ruler, combination square or some other hand held gauge. Extensive use of a level is required, sometimes on every piece of siding. All of this measuring, gauging and leveling is slow and produces many errors. These errors are compounded if a gauge slips or a level is not accurate. Two siders are generally required on longer pieces of siding. This greatly increases the chance of errors, as well as being a considerable waste of manpower. On large buildings, such as apartments, several teams of siders work at various places around the building at the same time using different gauges and methods of placing the siding. Small wonder then that variations in spacing and leveling occur around the building.
Several attempts to overcome these problems have been made but success has been limited. Martin, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,440,777, discloses a shake strip assembly which is mounted to the wall to accommodate a row of shakes. This is subsequently removed and raised for the next course. Cromleigh discloses, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,518,770, a tool for placing the initial piece of siding on a building. Edstrom discloses, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,463,480, angle irons with adjustable dogs which are used at corners to gauge siding. Krueger discloses, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,904,184, a pair of hangers nailed to the wall. Siding is slipped behind the hangers and held to the wall. After the siding is nailed, the hangers are relocated and the process repeated for successive pieces. Other patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,490,152; 4,159,029; 4,089,141; 4,155,175; 4,164,346; 4,425,714; and 4,658,490, represent variations on the same basic concept. In each case, after one piece of siding is located, a pair of hangers is positioned either by measuring and nailing or by clamping to the initial board or hanging on the initial board. A piece of siding is then placed on the hangers and secured to the wall after which the tools are removed and the process repeated. Each of these tools relies on the preceding piece of siding for its location and relocation. Variations in width of siding, along with warping and twisting of siding pieces results in errors. Constant relocation, anchoring and releasing of the tools extends job time without appreciably increasing accuracy.